I have friends and family who want to keep up with me and in touch, so I created this blog as a way for me to tell them all the news and stories they want to hear, and on their own time. I also hope to give others an understanding of what it means to serve in the IDF and the service those who do serve are doing.

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Gadna and brighter parts of life

This past week was spent mostly in Gadna. Gadna is a program run by the IDF to give incoming youth a taste of the army and an idea of where they would like to go. While the idea is great and I am all for the program this week was not fun for me. For one thing I already did a week of Gadna, but mine was done with a real army unit not with an education unit, and second I did a solid year at West point, enough said.

The better part of the week though was when Gadna ended on Thursday and we all got to leave. From there we went to Jerusalem, and after our bus breaking down on the side of the highway we finally got there. We stayed the night at an apartment owned by one of my friend’s parents, and that night we went to the Jerusalem beer festival. First of all I have never in all my days seen so many different kinds of good beer in one place at once. It’s like being a kid in a candy store and in either situation too much means you throw up, don't worry I did not. There was also an Israeli band playing there, and they were really good. Overall it was a great experience.

For shabbat I stayed with a friend from Mechina and Friday night we did a meal with another former Mechina member. Shabbat morning was more interesting as we ate at a friend’s house, his parents had just made aliyah and it was their first shabbat there. Me and several of my mechina friends compromised there first shababt guests in a beautiful but still mostly empty house.

The picture attached is one I snapped just as shabbat was coming in, and the sun was setting over Jerusalem and from my friend’s apartment one could see all of Jerusalem spread out below and a rosy ball of fire painting red clouds over the horizon as it slowly sank into a blissful day of rest.